We know the routine by now. Whatever awful thing that happens to serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) is portrayed by him and his supporters as being good for him and making him more popular. That has become an article of faith and I have to give him credit for using this face-saving tactic to turn what are political disasters into fund-raising opportunities and to raise the spirits of his cult followers.
But as with all things involving SSAT, much of this bravado is all smoke and mirrors and his support has been steadily declining as his legal troubles mount and he becomes increasingly unhinged in his comments.
A new POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos poll provides some bad news for Trump: Even as he remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, the cascading indictments are likely to take a toll on his general election prospects.
The survey results suggest Americans are taking the cases seriously — particularly the Justice Department’s 2020 election case — and that most people are skeptical of Trump’s claim to be the victim of a legally baseless witch hunt or an elaborate, multi-jurisdictional effort to “weaponize” law enforcement authorities against him.
Furthermore, public sentiment in certain areas — including how quickly to hold a trial and whether to incarcerate Trump if he’s convicted — is moving against the former president when compared to a previous POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos poll conducted in June.
Here are the main findings as reported in the article.
1. Most Americans believe Trump should stand trial before the 2024 election
2. About half of the country believes Trump is guilty in the pending prosecutions
3. A conviction in DOJ’s 2020 election case would hurt Trump in the general election
4. There is considerable room for the numbers to get worse for Trump
5. Half of the country believes Trump should go to prison if convicted in DOJ’s Jan. 6 case
6. Trump and the GOP’s ‘weaponization’ defense appears to be having limited traction
7. Trump is the prevailing villain in the story of his indictments
The article breaks down the results according to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Not surprisingly, Republicans are far more supportive of SSAT than Democrats. What should be concerning for Republicans, however, is that Independents are more closely aligned with the views of democrats than with those of Republicans, and that there is a small but non-negligible number of Republicans who are not buying the story that SSAT is selling.
As the other Republicans running in the primary are downright horrible, I see no downside to letting the Orange One win the nomination.
Voters might be tricked into regarding the others as “normal” politicians, but there are few unaffiliated voters left who think SSAT is “normal”.
I am reminded of the time the French voters had to choose between Chirac and Le Pen.
In the choice between a known corrupt asshole and a bona fide fascist, they chose Chirac. He was not a brilliant president. Neither is Biden. But people generally (not always) are able to choose the lesser evil.
“He becomes increasingly unhinged in his comments ”
As I have never found his comments very hinged, I wonder if the nuances are expressed by more frequent usage of
ALL CAPS or INVECTIVES.
Excellent news, if it pans out.
We were told he’d lost support in 2020…just before he increased his popular vote by 8 million on his 2016 numbers. Don’t discount shy Trumpistas and DON’T TAKE FOR GRANTED HE’LL LOSE. VOTE!
Just in:
Trump spreads new “roomer” about DeSantis.
Jeez, he has bern doing this since forever, and still no spell check.
There has to be a name for the law that says if you post something on the internet that makes fun of someone’s spelling or grammar, that post will itself contain a spelling and/or grammatical error.
… and I found it -- Muphry’s Law.